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hazardchris Commander
Joined: 01 Nov 2005 Posts: 358 Location: Lexington, KY
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Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 1:02 pm Post subject: Campaign Logs |
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I was wondering if anyone else keeps a log of sorts that Players can refer to for past events, NPCs, and so on. I'm using a wordpress blog for my next game (we're reviving our old game from 4 years ago, although one of the main three players is now in China).
Here's my Campaign log if anyone wants to take a look at it.
http://dawnofthejedi.wordpress.com/
The campaign is set in a universe where Han died on Endor and Luke didn't make it off the second Death Star. The Sith returned to the galaxy (in a way that's not dissimilar to a mix of the current Star Wars novel line and the basic plot of The Old Republic MMO) and the PCs ended up on the front lines of the war against them. We're picking up two years after the war ended and running something that I've pitched to them as "kinda like the Jedi Academy Novels." _________________ "Don't you have to have mini-clorinies in your blood or something to be a jedi?"
"Oh no, that's just something we used to tell people."
Let me make you a picture! |
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masque Captain
Joined: 16 Mar 2006 Posts: 626 Location: Houston, TX
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Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 4:26 am Post subject: Re: Campaign Logs |
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hazardchris wrote: | "Don't you have to have mini-clorinies in your blood or something to be a jedi?"
"Oh no, that's just something we used to tell people." |
I have no opinion on your actual post, it not being the milieu I play in, but I just had to highlight your sig and say "HELL YEAH!" to it. _________________ Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid. |
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Yak Face Lieutenant
Joined: 02 Jul 2008 Posts: 82 Location: Michigan
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Posted: Fri Dec 25, 2009 10:55 am Post subject: |
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My group keeps a basic log. Mine actually needs it for working out some long-term game mechanics. They have a crew to manage, so at the end of each month we tally up the successes and failures they've experienced and evaluate the kinds of deeds they've done, and then roll on a chart I devised to determine the affect on the faceless NPC crew. Their morale and morality are affected by the outcome.
So, for us the development of the story requires at least a basic log. I also keep an electronic record of the adventure notes/flow info that I prepare in advance, which is helpful if we have to look back on past events.
I like your approach of using a blog for that purpose. Do your players use it? _________________ However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. -Sir Winston Churchill |
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mdlake Sub-Lieutenant
Joined: 21 May 2009 Posts: 65 Location: Montclair, NJ
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Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2009 5:27 pm Post subject: |
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We do; it's part of a wiki including house rules, character profiles, a quote log, and whatever else the GM or players might find useful. wikidot.com offers a free, perfectly functional if not overly sophisticated platform for such a wiki. |
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Ankhanu Vice Admiral
Joined: 13 Oct 2006 Posts: 3089 Location: Nova Scotia, Canada
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Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2009 5:44 pm Post subject: |
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I used to maintain a website for my campaigns in which I would maintain a character record, keep useful resources for reference, and maintain a game log, providing a synopsis of each gaming session in a narrative style. This basically served as a chronicle of the characters' adventures, maintaining important events for each of them along with the broad arc of the story. For one of the campaigns I'd also add a little "What we have learned this game:" quip based on some major success or failure the characters encountered; usually something humorous (or simply presented humorously) One of the, for example was something like "Transparisteel has the word 'steel' in it for a reason" following one character's brilliant idea to crash through a transparisteel window for an escape resulting in smashing into the pane and crumpling into a heap beneath the fully intact window.
Sadly, my backups have gone missing and the server that housed the site died... the game synopses are lost to the ages
Yak Face wrote: |
I like your approach of using a blog for that purpose. Do your players use it? |
Yeah, the blog approach is a good one... but Yak's question is the most important one If the players aren't using it, is there really any point? _________________ Hotaru no Hishou; a messageboard about games, friends and nothing at all.
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ifurin Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 20 May 2007 Posts: 208
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Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2009 8:16 am Post subject: |
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in one of the games i play in our GM recaps all of our games in story form and e-mails them to us. we have about 2 years of games collected now. one of the other players is compiling them into a book. several of us even started character diaries, their pretty much the same thing, recapping the games from our characters personal point of view. |
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hazardchris Commander
Joined: 01 Nov 2005 Posts: 358 Location: Lexington, KY
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Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 11:52 am Post subject: |
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Yak Face wrote: | I like your approach of using a blog for that purpose. Do your players use it? |
Sorry about not replying to this in good time. The short answer is: yes, they do use it.
However, we've not yet started this game yet, the site is still under construction in a sense, however I've gotten good feedback from the returning players and a couple of people who played with us in the original campaign whom are interested in reviving their old characters (even a few new people are interested in playing).
The main problem with our Star Wars games is that they were never intended to become a long-running campaign. It started off as a one-off game that we played one night due to boredom and along the way we accidentally started building our own mythology around these characters. So this site is more or less me ironing out some of the wrinkles in the old game and refreshing the memories of the players (it's been a couple of years since we used these characters). _________________ "Don't you have to have mini-clorinies in your blood or something to be a jedi?"
"Oh no, that's just something we used to tell people."
Let me make you a picture! |
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Redmenace Cadet
Joined: 03 May 2006 Posts: 2 Location: Southern California
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Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2010 10:17 pm Post subject: |
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We used to make a printed 1-4 page session log of each adventure. At the time it started as a 1 page recap of the last adventure to remind players of clues and leads left hanging.
Slowly we added additional detail about concurent events in the galaxy, a rebel base being wiped out, new Moff stationed after the last displeased someone higher in the Empire than themselves, etc.
The odd thing about it was that gm and players got two different things out of it. I, the gm, could keep my players on track with the game, the players really got more out of reading about their own exploits. They loved that, |
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